TRAVEL TALES of ranaruby

Scotland - Part 1 King’s Cross Station, London. One of the oldest and busiest railway stations of Europe, located in central London. During the inaugural period(1851) Queen Victoria travelled to Scotland from this station. We took the morning high speed train from here on our journey to Caledonia. Caledonia is the Latin name given by the Romans in early first century AD for area north of their province Britannia. The train sped through the rolling English countryside. And from Newcastle upon Tyne the scene was more breathtaking, as the train ran almost along the North Sea, its beaches and cliffs.  Before coming to Scotland I personally carried an impression that Edinburgh is a quaint little Scottish town, and its rail station is small and compact, like any other wayside stations in England. But as we stepped down on the platform I was stupefied to find a vast complex teeming with people. The station is well connected to the North Bridge, which runs over the station and br...

From Ruby’s Kitchen SARDINE FRY Ingredients Fish – 2 whole pcs (medium size) Ginger Paste – 1 tsp Onion Paste – 1 tbsp Black Pepper(crushed) – 1 tbsp Olive Oil – 1.5 tbsp Parsley (finely chopped) – 1 tbsp Salt – 1.5 tbsp Vinegar - 1 tbsp Lemon – 2 pcs Besan – half tsp Capsicum, tomato, cauliflower, beans - all chopped into tiny cubes Method of Preparation. Clean fish and keep it soaked for about one hour in vinegar, lemon juice (two medium sized fresh lemons) and 1 tablespoon salt. After that wash the fish thoroughly and then dry it with towel napkin. Marinate the fish with onion paste, ginger paste, salt and parsley, preferably for about two hours. Once marinated, apply a thin layer of Besan coating on the entire fish. Then place the fish in one table spoon oil on a frying pan, cover it with a lid and let it fry in low flame for, say 10 minutes,. Next, flip the fish to the other side, apply half teaspoon black pepper and continue the frying process for 10 minutes. Afte...

ITALIAN RIVIERA Simply enchanting! A sight that provokes a longing to return again and again. As our train passed through a series of tunnels after La Spezia and was about to enter Riomaggiore station, the openings in the tunnel walls provided a fleeting view of the precipice leading almost vertically down to a spectacular expanse of blue Mediterranean.Crystal blue, totally different from colours of seas I have seen so far. So distinct that this shade of blue has come to be known as Mediterranean Blue . Riomaggiore is one of the five villages on the rugged portion of Italian Riviera. The other four villages are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia and Manarola. All these five villages and the surrounding hillsides dot the Riviera and belong to Cinque Terre (meaning ‘five lands’) National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage site. Since almost thousand years from now, residents of these villages carved terraces on the rugged and steep rocky lands right upto the cliffs. These heavil...

River Kwai I first saw Bridge on the River Kwai when I was just a   school boy in Lucknow.I remember seeing the Academy Award winning movie at  Mayfair theater on Hazratgunj . The film was superb in all respect. Legendary   Director David Lean with great casts like Al ec Guinness, William Holden,  Jack Hawkins – shot in entirety in Sri Lanka; superb real life photography and based  on a true story on construction of a Bridge by POWs(prisoners of war) of the Allied force, held in  cramped swampy rain forest camps set up by the Japanese army during World War  II. The bridge was the most infamous section of about 250 miles Siam railroad  track from Bang Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma, and was built to  support the Japanese Imperial Army’s forces in Burma (now Myanmar). The film  shows the travails of POWs engaged in construction of the Bridge in 1942– 43.There were many deaths in these camps during construction pe...